Angel of the Night
by Athena Evarinya
Summary: Usagi turned her back on her loved ones and walked away to save them from an evil that threatened them because of her existence. Now she must return because that same evil has returned to stalk the ones she love to lure her back into his web...


_**Prologue**_

"Where the hell were you," Sailor Mars yelled, tiny sparks of red and gold glittered in her hair, looking to the casual observer as if fireflies or perhaps if one was fanciful, fairies were dancing in the Senshi of War's raven tresses. It was, in fact, actually sparks of fire, a very visible physical manifestation of the young woman's irritation and a clue of the volatile nature of her emotions that was making her control over her powers a bit shaky. The Senshi of Fire glared down at her petite blonde leader, anger warring with trying to understand how the blonde could have become so unreliable as of late. Even for Sailor Moon this was a new level of low.

"We needed you and you weren't there! That's the eleventh time this has happened!"

Actually it was only the seventh time; however Sailor Moon didn't think it was wise to point this out. It was clear that Mars wouldn't have appreciated that while she was in mid-rant and in the end did it really matter if it was the eleventh or seventh time? Late was late.

"How can you be this irresponsible? Because of you Tuxedo Kamen and Uranus got hurt! They could have died."

And that was the main reason for Mars's rage. Not the tardiness, but that the tardiness had caused people that she cared about to be hurt. Hurt to a level that death was a possibility. The blonde could understand that feeling. She had been terrified of what she would find when she got here, but in all honesty there had been no way for her to get here any earlier then she had. Not that she could say that or explain it.

"I'm sorry," Sailor Moon said quietly, touching her transformation brooch to deactivate her transformation and return to her civilian form. The others released their own transformations.

"That's all you have to say for yourself," Makoto demanded angrily. It was another clue of how bad things were that even if Makoto was snapping at the blonde. "Just sorry?"

"What else would you have to say," asked Usagi, her tone flat and blank. She knew what she would have to do. She should have done it weeks before, but she had been stubbornly holding on to hope when in her heart she knew no such thing existed. It would have to be tonight; no more putting it off anymore.

"I know she was late and we had to handle the situation without her help, but Usagi-chan said she was sorry," Ami said, trying to get a handle on the situation before it really got out of hand. One could always count on the cerulean-haired genius to try and uphold the peace. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation to this." She turned towards the blonde and gave her a beseeching look. "Just tell them so we can end this argument. It's useless when what's past is past."

'_If only things were that easy, Ami-chan,'_ Usagi thought sadly. However, there was no way she could tell any of them the reason as to why she was late. To do so would only lead to questions she couldn't and wouldn't answer. Not without endangering them and their safety and lives meant more to her then anything else.

"I can't tell you," she replied, because it was the only answer she could give. And because she knew that it was also the one response that would help push their anger futher.

"Why not, Usagi," Mamoru questioned her. The fact that he had called her Usagi instead of his pet name for was a sure indication that he was unhappy with her. Or at least unhappy with her for withholding information from him, something she had never done before in their relationship.

'_It hurts'_, she thought. _'He's never going to call me Usako again. Sweet Selene, I wish I had paid more attention the last time he said it. After this, I won't even get an Odango Atama. How he'd laugh if he knew that I'll miss even that damn name."_

"I can't tell you that either."

Usagi felt the slightest brush against the metaphorical outer walls that guarded her mind; but she had expected this to happen. It was the anticipation of such a move like this from Mamoru that had made her prepare ahead of time to build a wall of cold, hard stone around her thoughts to keep him out when he tried to use the soul link between them. The irony of the situation was that she had learned this trick from him back during the time when they were battling the Black Moon and he had guarded his own thoughts from her after their breakup. She didn't think he'd appreciate the irony, nor the fact that she was protecting him, not the other way around. As great of a guy as he was, Mamoru was still a man and he believed that he was the one who was supposed to protect her and not the other way around.

Frustration flashed in Mamoru's eyes as he discovered that Usagi had effectively blocked him off that way from getting the answers they all wanted. That left only one option left; one that wasn't used often since it just didn't seem right. However, they had all had a long night and were frustrated at the situation and at Usagi; no one was going to quibble over morality at this point.

"Setsuna," Mamoru said in a commanding voice, like the Prince of Earth that he was. There was no need to say anymore, because the situation was self-explanatory. Besides as the Senshi of Time, Setsuna had some vision of the future. It was different then Rei's gift; the raven-haired beauty's power allowed her to see possible things in the future, but they weren't set in stone.

Setsuna's visions were of things that would and did happen, although she didn't know everything there was of the future. That would come with time when she officially ascended to the throne of Pluto as its Queen. Right now as the Princess, her powers were more limited. Besides it wasn't the future they needed to know but the past and that was well within the woman's domain of power.

A few minutes passed before Setsuna spoke. "I don't know. Something is keeping me from seeing."

"Is it the enemy," Chibi-Usa asked. She had returned to the past a few months earlier at the request of her mother, Neo-Queen Serenity. The young girl was clueless as to her mother's reasons why, but she hadn't objected as she enjoyed spending time with the younger incarnations of the people she knew. Besides it was wonderful to see her mother at a younger age and to know that the graceful and beautiful woman, she knew as her mother, had once been less then perfect then she seemed in the child's time.

The enemy that the young Senshi spoke of was an unknown entity. The attacks were random and seemingly without purpose. They had yet to figure out the goals of the enemy (not that it changed much; always a variation of the world domination or destruction theme). It was a good guess as any that the enemy may have messed with the flow of time, or at least with Setsuna's ability to see the past.

However in reality, it had been Usagi's doing with the use of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou. Over the years, the young woman had learned how to tap in and use the powers of the Ginzuishou without taxing herself or putting her life at risk. It was something she would have learned from her mother, the first one, Queen Serenity; but the Dark Kingdom had attacked before the time had come where she would be properly trained in the use of the Ginzuishou. Everything she had learned was self-taught with perhaps a bit of intellectual help from Ami and knowledge of the past imparted by Setsuna.

She had used the Ginzuishou to disrupt the Senshi of Time from seeing the past. She had been careful to make the disruption seem more random then focused. Setsuna would find there would be many random instances of being unable to see the past when she choose to. If Usagi had only blocked the past that concerned her secrets, Setsuna would have become suspicious and correctly guessed what she had done. By doing it like this, even if Plutonian Princess had any suspicions she couldn't confirm them because she could still see parts of Usagi's past.

"I don't know, Small Lady," Setsuna replied, using the pet name of the child that had been given to her in the future. "But whatever is it, it's hampering my ability to see the past."

"Let's worry about that later," said Haruka, her voice full of irritation which wasn't really surprising. She tended to get in a bad mood when she was hurt, which was a sign to her that the enemy was better then her or she had not fought at her best. Uranus, Jupiter and Mars were all planets that had been known for their abilities in anything physical or battle-related. The people of the planets had been proud of their abilities and it wasn't unheard of to have an individual from anyone of those planets to get bent out of shape when they found themselves lacking. However, Haruka was the type to get mad when it was her own fault that she got injured, which meant that the injury had occurred because a mistake on her part.

"I still want to know the reason why you were late, Usagi."

"I said I can't tell you," replied the blonde, letting a hint of irritation creep into her own voice. She knew her friends well enough that her showing any sort of irritation in this sort of situation would set some tempers off. She wasn't disappointed in her assessment of them.

"THE MAN YOU LOVE AND ONE OF YOUR BEST FRIENDS ALMOST DIED BECAUSE YOU WERE LATE AND YOU WON'T TELL US THE REASON WHY," Rei exploded. "You don't deserve to be leader. I say we vote for a new leader."

And that was another expected result. Whenever she screwed up like this, Rei typically demanded they vote for another person to lead them. It wasn't that Rei was out to become leader herself. Well maybe in the early days when they had first awakened as Senshi without the memoires of their past. But now they knew of their past, the reasons for Rei's demands for a new leader had little to do with ambition. In the past, it had been Minako who had led the Inner Senshi while Rei had been her second. The Outer Senshi had had solitary posts so they had never had a leader, or at least a formal one. Informally it was Haruka who led them and Setsuna who served as her second.

In any case, Rei's demands for a leadership vote now was more to spark a fire under Usagi. Rei had often used it to push the blonde to improve herself so she would grow and prove herself worthy of her position as leader and eventually future Queen of the new Silver Millennium. However at this moment, the tactic was being used to push Usagi to spill the beans. It was also going according to Usagi's plan to create a believable opening to cut all ties. Hard to believe that she, Usagi, the one referred to Odango Atama could come up with such a devious plan to trick her friends. One that played them so well. The old Usagi couldn't have done it, but that Usagi no longer existed even if none of them knew it.

The blonde watched Makoto and Haruka, saw the agreement in their eyes, with Rei's words. She knew they didn't really want to replace her as leader, but as women of Jupiter and Uranus respectively, they came from two lines of people who not only understood but appreciated this kind of method to teach a lesson and achieve a goal. They didn't realize that no lesson would be taught tonight. Another few minutes and it would all be over.

'_Great Selene, give me strength,'_ Usagi thought as sharp pain shot through her heart of the final steps she would have to take tonight to complete her plan.

"Think I care," she retorted, leaving them all shocked into silence. That was one response that none of them ever imagined coming out of the blonde's mouth. Some pouting yes, tears even or vows that she'd improve and tell them everything. But not this.

"Of course you care," Michiru said, the first to recover from her shock first. "Stop joking around, Usagi."

"I'm not joking," Usagi replied coldly, reaching for that new part of her that was cold and immovable as ice. There was no turning back now. It was time to take the final steps. To cut the bonds that tied them together because that was the only way she could protect them. It was a twisted kind of situation that she had to hurt them so badly that they might hate her, just to save them. The part of her that was still her, cried out in pain, but it was the colder newer part that was in control to do what had to be done. The irony of it was that the new part was the reason why she had to do this all in the first place.

"You've gotta be kidding us right Usagi," Minako asked. "You can't _just not_ care."

"No I'm not," the blonde retorted. "You know what? I'm sick of being the leader and having to make hard decisions and being yelled at when I make the wrong ones. I'm sick of being a Senshi. Why fight when every time we defeat one evil, a new one's stepping up to take their place? I hate the fact that my life's no longer mine, that it's being ruled over what happened in another life and time. And you wanna know what I hate the most? ALL OF YOU!"

The look on their faces was beyond shocked. There was also pain intermingled in their expressions and she wanted nothing more to get on her hands and knees and apologize for every word. But hurting them is a small price to pay for keeping them alive. If anyone in the world deserved to live and be happy, it was these souls who gave up so much to protect everyone else.

"That's right. I hate all of you," Usagi continued, her voice cruel and cutting. "All you ever do is nag or look down at me. Because I may be the reincarnation of Serenity, but I'll never be like her. I'm just a second-hand copy while you're perfect reincarnations of your past life and all of you just love rubbing it in. Ami's probably the worst out of all of you. The only reason why we ever had study sessions is so Ami could make herself look charitable helping out the dumb blonde at the bottom of the class. The one who used to actually be smarter in another life, even if she did goof off a lot. The girls in school are right. Ami is just a stuck up know it all with no life."

'_Gomen nasai Ami-chan,'_ Usagi thought. Ami was so kind and sweet, she didn't deserve this. It hurt her as much as Ami to see the pain and glassy-eyed look due to unshed tears in the cerulean-haired girl's eyes. However, she knew the best way to ignite the anger of the others and push them to hate her was to attack those who were weakest in the group.

"Bitch," Makoto cried as she slapped Usagi's face. It was something that Makoto never thought she would do and while her palm stung from the action, it was her heart that hurt more that she had done it or that she had to do it in the first place. "How can you be so mean to Ami-chan?"

Usagi brought a hand up to her cheek, which she was sure was bright red. That had stung, although she knew it could have hurt a lot worse. Makoto was the strongest of the Senshi physically; she knew the brunette had held back even though she had been angry. She wished that Makoto hadn't held back though. It was only fitting that she feel every hurt they could fling at her for doing this and these days it took a lot more physically to hurt her; that slap had barely registered on her pain meter. Yet any physical pain was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.

Glaring coldly at Makoto, Usagi said, "And as for you Makoto, you've just proved that you're the crazy karate chick who always stoops to physical violence, that Umino said you were." Okay he had said it when Makoto had first transferred to Juuban Junior High but had quickly changed his tune once he had seen how quickly and easily Usagi had befriended the towering Amazon. "I don't know why I actually thought differently. Not all the good cooking in the world is going to be able to bribe people to see different. You're nothing more then an oversized big bully! A freak of nature!"

Out of the corner of her eyes, Usagi can see the others reacting. Some with shock while others have already gotten over shock to move to anger. Minako was one of the ones who had moved to anger; it was as plain as day on her face that she was pissed off. It really wasn't surprising since she and Makoto have always been really close. As for Rei and Haruka, one could practically see the steam rising out of their ears. The others are upset to, but she still hadn't pushed them enough to want to kick them out of their lives. Maybe grovel and apologize for the next few years, but she still hadn't done enough damage to their relationship yet.

The blonde's eyes landed on Hotaru, who was still more in shock then anything else. As the youngest of the Senshi besides Chibi-Usa, the rest of them had always tended to look out her; especially as in some ways despite the great power she held, the young girl had always seemed a bit fragile to them. It had been the same in the past as well. Usagi really hated herself for what she was about to do, but she knew that aiming a verbal attack at Hotaru would only further server to sever the bonds.

"And while we're on the topic of strengths, why don't we talk about how pathetic Hotaru is," she announced, eyes narrowing as she glared at the poor girl who looked beyond upset at the situation and being put on the spot. "You're supposed to be one of the most powerful Senshi, the great Senshi of Destruction yet you're a little wimp."

Dark violet eyes shimmered with tears, before a single one escaped and slid down Hotaru's face. The others looked ready to kill Usagi.

"Usagi," Chibi-Usa cried. "How can you be so cruel?"

"I'm just stating the truth," I replied. "And here's another truth for you. I don't want such a sappy little busybody as a daughter. Especially one who looks like she's going to grow up to be a slut if your Black Lady period is anything to go by. Why would anyone want a daughter like you? I -"

The verbal assault stopped when Mamoru was suddenly there and slapping her across the face on the same cheek that Makoto had slapped just a few minutes earlier. If it had gotten to the point when her beloved Mamo-chan was slapping her, something he had never done EVER in any of their lives, then she knew she had accomplished her goal.

"You son of a bitch," she spat. "How dare you hit me?"

"How dare you talk to our daughter that way," he countered in a strangely calm voice. However Usagi knew him better then that. If it had been merely surface temper, he would have yelling at her as he once did when they got into their verbal spats before the had fallen in love. But when it was calm like, it was an indicator that the anger ran deep; the calmer his voice was, the more rage that was boiling inside that was held back by excellent control.

"What's wrong with you Usagi? What happened to that girl I fell in love with during the Silver Millennium? The one I fell in love with all over again in this life?"

"She realized what a joke this has all been," Usagi retorted. "I'm not going to let something that happened in the past or what might happen in the future affect my life anymore. We're through Chiba Mamoru."

Surprising it was those words that had the greatest effect. None of the cruel words she had spoken before had quite the same impact as those four words. Because he was her soulmate, the other half of her heart and soul. For her to end what fate and destiny had bound together was perhaps more earth-shattering then the cruel taunts designed to poke at the scars and insecurities of her friends.

"You don't mean that Usako," he said, making her mourn the fact that the last time she would hear that name was when it was filled with so much bewilderment and pain that for a moment had overwhelmed his anger.

"Oh yes I do," Usagi replied. "Now that we've had this little chat I'm leaving. Don't worry about me being around to piss you off anymore. I'm leaving Tokyo. Be glad that I even took the time to even say good bye. Have a nice life."

She turned and started to walk away.

"Mama," Chibi-Usa cried, running up to Usagi and grabbing her hand. It was a sign of how serious she was, since the child always referred to her mother of this time by her name. Perhaps in some way this seemed like a divorce to the child, even though her parents in this time weren't even married, let alone herself being born. By invoking their true relationship, the little girl hoped to bring back the woman she knew and not this stranger who said such horrible thing.

"Please don't do this. Please don't go. Please."

Usagi may have not had that connection that came with carrying a child within her womb or the formative years of Chibi-Usa's upbringing, at least not yet, but blood was a strong bond and this child was her flesh and blood; she had known it on some level even when the pink-haired girl had just appeared in her life and driven her nuts and before she learned the truth. It was hard to turn her back on her, knowing that her actions would make this wonderful little girl cease to exist, if it was even possible for her to exist at this point.

Yet even if she remained, Chibi-Usa would still disappear.

"Get a life kid," Usagi sneered, jerking her hand free. "Oh I forgot. You won't be around very long now to get one."

As soon as she was out of their sight, she started to run as if the demons of hell at were heels. And in a way they were, or correction already had been at her heels. Yet no matter how fast she could run now, she could not outrun the sobs of her child that pierced the night. She pushed herself past her physical limits to run faster, to resist the urge to turn around and comfort the little girl, but no matter how fast she ran there was no escaping the pain in her heart. A pain that would never leave her.

But she couldn't allow herself the weakness to stop and cry. Not now. She had to be strong. For them.

* * *

_**Final Thought from Usagi:**_

_For them…_

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

_Once upon a time ago when I was 18, I first created an account on and wrote the first Sailor Moon story that I ever wrote. That story was __**Angel of the Night. **__Shortly after that, I stopped writing fan fiction because I discovered other interests. Now I'm writing fan fiction again and after months of racking my brains, I finally accessed my old account. I have removed __**Angel of the Night**__ from that account because while it has a good storyline, it's rather embarrassing me to now to read it; I know I'm capable of writing better then that. So here am I revising that long ago story and adding on to it, to make it much more then it was. Those who follow me know, that my writing is sporadic and I apologize for that. I need to work on finding time and being a more dedicated writer. In my defense, when I do update I do give it my all to make up for the lack of updates. I hope you enjoy. _

_~Athena Evarinya~_

* * *

_**Maboroshi no Ginzuishou **__\- Illusionary Silver Crystal_

_**Gomen nasai -**__ sorry_

_**-chan**__ \- suffix for a name that means family or close friend. May be offensive if you don't know that person well._

_**Senshi **_**-**_ soldier, warrior, fighter_

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**Disclaimer:** I do not claim any rights to **Sailor Moon** or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Takeuchi Naoko and anyone else she says has rights to it.


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